The Weight of Your Words
Measuring the impact of what you say.
Joseph M Stowell
5. Cross words
“There is one who speaks rashly like the thrusts of a sword but the tongue of the wise brings healing.” Prov 12:18
What leads people to use cross words?
Murmuring - a form of complaining that harbours a negative attitude toward a situation or the people involved.
Read Num 13:1-2, 17-14:4
How does the reaction of the 10 spies and the people to taking the Promised Land reflect their view of God?
What impact did the report of the 10 spies have on the people? Their bad report led the people to do what?
Read Num 14:5-10
What does this tell us regarding good vs bad reports? How is it still true today? Give some examples.
Read Num 14:11-38
The people’s murmuring and complaining brought God’s judgement. The text highlights a comparison between the 10 spies who brought the unfavourable report and two other spies; Joshua and Caleb. What do we know about the future of Joshua and Caleb? (see Jos 1:1-3 and 14:13-15) What do we know about the future of the other 10 spies? Why the difference?
What can we learn from the story with regards to murmuring and complaining within the church? How is the mission of the church affected by such speech patterns?
Contentious words - Causing or likely to cause disagreement or controversy. Liking to cause arguments
What do the following verses tell us about the causes for a contentious tongue?
Prov 10:12 Prov 28:25
Prov 15:18 Prov 30:33
It seems emotions and poor character traits lead us to strife and contention. Jesus said that it’s what comes from within that makes a person unclean. If we live lives full of contention and strife, what steps should we take to identify the causes and rectify them?
Nagging is a very common form of verbal contention. Why do people nag? What would be a better way to achieve your goal?
Application exercise
Rank in order from the greatest to the least the root causes for your murmuring and contentious words; anger, irritation, disappointment, impatience, stress, insecurity and guilt.
Now analyze your top three choices. Do they tend to be areas of character weakness you battle with on the whole? Claim the promises of God to give you more of the character of Christ through the power of his spirit.